TL; DR = How do people make choices among competing values? (Say, money and satisfaction)
Especially in context of choosing what idea to bring to execution , when you have a list of 3-4 good ideas.
I’ve been learning phoenix LiveView for past month or so (Elixir : 3 months now) and have 3-4 project ideas.
Until now, I’ve considered prioritising as fairly straightforward decisions with choosing one thing I want to accomplish (say, learn new feature, or for sake of pair programming with a smart friend or …)
Lately , I’ve been realising Equally good(worthy) competing values in pRoposed projects making prioritising difficult.
How does one generally go about prioritising projects? What metrics do you use? Is there a good decision framework?
My projects ideas :
Integrating payments (UPI payments because I am in India) with LiveView, and keep a couple of routes behind paywall.
Writing tiddlywiki clone with LiveView - with collaborative editing Using Delta (by people at Slab)
Telegram bots managed by Elixir Supervisor. Or an OTP app for the same.
(I intend to host this on my Android via Termux just to see if my phone can handle expected traffic /load )
Rank your priorities. What’s most important to you? Making money, doing something fun to improve your mental health, or whatever.
As for ideas, everyone always worries about finding the best idea. Most ideas are good enough, especially if you execute on them well. Worry more about how you make the idea you choose a winner than picking a predetermined winner.
I am looking into a larger-scale abyss of the same general kind … there are a near-infinite number of technologies I could acquaint myself with, all of which have much to commend themselves to me as a worthy use of my time. In the mix for me are all the pros and cons of how to manage this phase of my career, with strong arguments for complete, partial, and no retirement, either now, 3 or 5 years from now, or never, etc. And all the competing concerns of family.
If you begin to tackle something like that from the fantasy perspective that there is “one correct answer” then you will quickly drive yourself insane.
In all such decisions, it’s better to pick something and move in that direction. It is okay if ultimately you end up abandoning that direction, because this, too, is information, and in my experience NO skill or concept that you learn in this craft goes to waste. Refine as you go. Understand that there are probably at least a dozen paths you could profitably take – all of them will have downsides of their own, so don’t seek perfection. Action is preferable to dithering. In the end, flip a coin if you don’t have better decision criteria than that to work with.
Always remember, you have options, and it’s both a blessing and a curse. In the real world, the way forward is seldom crystal clear or without pitfalls. Just accept that and work with it. Learn to laugh at the absurdity you encounter, it’s way better than raging into the night. Learn to recognize the value you encounter, too – it’s astoundingly easy to overlook it entirely.
